Types of User Profile in Windows 8.1

          Windows 8.1 requires each user to have a user profile. User profiles are created during a user’s first sign-in and are stored in the Users folder.
User profiles are created based on the content in the default profile in the Users folder. There are
three different types of user profiles:
• Local. Available only on a single computer.
• Roaming. Can roam between domain-joined
computers.
• Mandatory. Special type of preconfigured
user profile that does not store user changes
between sign-ins.

Local User Profiles
          When a user signs in to a computer for the first time, the operating system automatically creates a local user profile that will be used for all subsequent sign-ins to the same computer. The local user profile is used only when a user signs in to the computer where the profile was created, and it is useful when a user is using a single computer. If a user roams between multiple computers, then by default, separate local user profiles will be created on each computer.
          This means that modifications and documents that the user created on one computer will not be used or available on other computers. Therefore, local profiles should be avoided if a user signs in to multiple devices.

Roaming User Profiles
          In a domain environment, administrators can configure a user with a roaming user profile by configuring his or her profile path. With roaming user profiles, user settings and data are stored on a network location and locally on the computer where the user signs in. When a user signs in, the local copy of the user profile is compared to the copy that is stored on the network location, and only new files are copied locally. The user can change settings and create data files, which are stored in the local user profile copy.
          When the user signs out, these changes are copied to the network location. If users roam between multiple computers, their documents and settings will follow them.
          If a user profile contains a lot of data, or if the user stores large files on the desktop, then the process of signing in to the computer might take a long time. If a user signs in to multiple computers at the same time, changes performed on one computer will override changes performed on a second computer because user profile changes are copied to the network location only when the user signs out. Some parts of the user profile, such as Temporary Internet Files or AppData\Local, are never copied to the network location, even if roaming user profiles are used.

Mandatory User Profiles
          A mandatory user profile is a type of roaming user profile that administrators can configure users with.
          With mandatory user profiles, user changes are stored in the local copy of the user profile, but are not preserved after a user signs out from the computer. When the user signs in again, the mandatory user profile is downloaded from the network location, and it overrides the local user profile copy. The two types of mandatory user profiles are normal mandatory profiles and super-mandatory profiles.
          Administrators can configure users with mandatory user profiles first by configuring them with roaming user profiles and then by renaming the NTuser.dat file in their profiles to NTuser.man. The .man extension causes user modifications to the profile to be discarded at the next sign-in and user profiles to behave as read-only.

Super-Mandatory User Profiles
          User profiles become super-mandatory when the administrator adds the .man extension to a user’s roaming user profile folder name. For example, if a roaming user profile is stored in the
\\Server\Profiles\User1.V2 folder, the administrator can add the .man extension to the folder and store the roaming user profile at \\Server\Profiles\User1.man.V2. Mandatory and super-mandatory user profiles behave similarly; both do not preserve user modifications. If a user is configured with a super-mandatory profile, he or she will not be able to sign in if the network copy of the profile is not available. In such cases, users with a normal mandatory profile would still be able to sign in, and they would get temporary profiles, which could be against company policy.